... with one eye open.

By Chamaeleo

WWT London: Moorhen Mayhem

Moor[h]enraged in large.
Extra: A neck for nibbling
My blip is part of a dramatic series (right from here)

My mother and I went to the Wetland Centre in the early afternoon; it was pretty grey, but we had a nice time.
The usual suspects were on characteristic form: the adorable Emperor geese were a-nibbling (my mother's boots, again...), the nénés were either snoozing or trying to escape (one hypnotised a woman into opening the gate for it, in spite of nearby people protesting and the gate having a framed warning sign on it...), and lots of rails were scrapping. 
The nénés tremble their ridged necks mesmerically when you get close, and I now suspect that this may be their hypnotising technique: I find it beguiling, and that one particularly susceptible visitor obediently opened the warning-signed gate to let it out...

This was a dramatic sight: the moorhens had formed some sort of fight club, with this (unusual) yellow-beaked individual (Tyler Durhen?) being the centre of a lot of the conflict. At one stage there were two fights going on side by side, which was fun photographically...

Also photographed iridescing buffleheads, the little demoiselle cranes, lots of ducks (inc. Laysan, white-headed, mandarin, and falcated ducks), and red-breasted geese.

Other favourites:
Néné looking just like its identikit image
Néné trying its hypnosis strategy for escaping
Synchronised scrapping
Laysan teal preening
Mandarin in a flap
Others here (or right from Cutest character)

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